“You want another beer, Miss Smith?”

 

“No thanks. I’m good.”

 

Rolling the neck of the bottle under her lips, Dawn Sawyers felt the cool suds running down her throat. The buzz just hit her brain when she looked over her shoulder for a place to lay her weary legs. Price to pay for coming to Pub 22 with her feet pressed into suicide heels. Not that the sharp points hadn’t served a purpose. Dawn still had to smile at the memory of a burly man two times her size crumbling into the dirt when she kicked him hard between his legs. No one messed with her. Not unless she wanted them to.

 

And right now…

 

“Sorry about the melee out front,” he said, as he took hold of her free hand, a faint smile poking out from under his icy blue eyes, as the corners of his mouth curled into a small grin. Dawn took note of the hard callouses covering his hands, and she sighed at the feel of his fingers, nearly losing her stance in spite of herself when a strong arm suddenly surrounded her waist.

 

“Which one?” Dawn asked. “Your boys? Or your uninvited guests?” His gaze narrowed on the slight parting of her lips. She wished that the diamond studs lining her low-cut red bustier were something out of a James Bond setup, ready to record whatever truth he might suddenly convey. Far too high tech for Plainfield, Vermont, so her memory would have to suffice.

 

“Both. But you’re okay back here,” he assured her. “As long as you got me close.”

 

Far from the plan, but now it seemed like the only reason she had ever said yes to the assignment. Dawn nodded into his neck, as he mercifully eased her off her aching feet and sat her down on the edge of a rumpled mattress.

 

“And I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “Not tonight.”

 

Taking another pull on her beer, Dawn’s gaze settled in Cade Everett’s sapphire pools. The ice in his stare seemed to melt, as he reached under her chin and grazed his finger towards her blushing cheek.

 

“Man like you doesn’t have a date?” she nervously teased. Cade didn’t laugh; his soft smile faded, as his hand surrounded her face, and he pressed his brow to hers. Moaning lightly at the feel of his skin so close, she let the empty bottle fall to the floor. No sound of shattering, but it rolled out of view, as Cade pressed her to his lap and peered up into her dark eyes.

 

“Man like me waits for what he wants,” he said. “Right about now, you’re it, lady.”

 

His hands started to roam up her blouse, and even as Dawn shivered against his touch, she offered no resistance as he caressed her sides and came close to her barely covered breasts. A strategic move on her part. To get the job done, she needed to show as much skin as possible. Or did she know that she would end up like this and wanted to make his pursuit an easy one?

 

“You feel even better than you look,” he said. “But of course, I’m still waiting for the full picture.”

 

Dawn fought and failed to stifle a moan, and she leaned into him, as he unveiled her chest, the strange, sweet scent of cigarette smoke wafting off his blonde locks, as he curved closer to her neck.

 

“Time for a closer look,” he said.

 

Cade’s head fell between her breasts, and Dawn relished the feel of his nose burrowing into her skin. She had taken the time to coat her body in lavender, but now she knew that her sweat mingled with the perfume. Touching his broad back, Dawn started to back off when he pulled away from her, his head tilting to the side as he smirked.

 

“Don’t be shy,” he said. “You feel just great. What I want now is a taste.”

 

Dawn stayed still, as his tongue circled her soft mound and came to rest on her nipple. Pursing his lips around her quaking flesh, Cade sucked her slowly, his tongue darting from his mouth every few passes to lap the tainted perfume from her body before he met her mouth and peered into her eyes.

 

“You taste like a dream,” he said.

 

Daring to touch his face, Dawn savored the feel of him, as she struggled to her feet and gazed down at him.

 

“But we’re both wide awake,” she said. “At least I know I am.”

 

Cade watched without words as she kicked her heels aside, her shoes following the path of her discarded bottle, as she settled on flat feet and started to lift her skirt.

 

“Wait.”

 

The sharpness in Cade’s tone froze her on the spot, and Dawn didn’t make another move as he knelt at her feet and lightly touched her thighs. Moaning at the feel of his fingers, she started to cradle the back of his head, as he pulled her skirt away.

 

“Someone sure is down for something,” he said.

 

Dawn felt no shame at the reality of her bare body under his hands, his eyes.

 

“But not with anyone else,” Dawn said.

 

“Kind of got that much,” Cade said. “Don’t mind George. Man doesn’t take kindly to interlopers.”

 

A knot tied in her stomach, and Dawn felt it creep up her throat. Just a girl looking for a drink. Nothing more or less. Nothing that the Alpha Brotherhood needed to fear, and maybe George was making like Cade said and protecting his patch of turf. Better for her if he kept thinking that.

 

And if Cade did get wise to what she was really was…

 

“But I liked seeing you lay him down,” Cade said, as he shifted to his feet and gathered her in his arms. “Real sexy seeing you take care of yourself.”

 

His touch was soft around the contours of her ass, and Dawn pressed her palms to his chest. His pecs glistened in the dim light, as she nipped at his skin. She heard him groan, as he reached behind her neck and released her tiny bun. Dawn shook out her shorn locks and let her hair fall against his shoulders, as she clasped him close and stretched towards his ear.

 

“Thanks for that,” she said. “But I…I wouldn’t mind…”

 

Their eyes locked, and Dawn held her tongue, as Cade traced the soft line of her jaw. His touch was as inviting as his eyes, and she let her lips trail down his neck, as her kisses found his tight abs and she wrapped her arms around his firm waist.

 

“I wouldn’t mind if you took care of me.”

 

Her hands found his ass, and Cade’s body melted into her fingers, as Dawn felt his cock buzzing against her nose. The smell of his body made her moan, and she quickly kissed his tip before centering her stare on his eyes and licking her lips.

 

“Or we could keep it the other way around,” she said. “Do you want me to kiss you again?”

 

Cade nodded without words, and Dawn spread her lips around his cock. His flesh was sleek and tight against her tongue, and she moved up his shaft, as her throat opened wide to take all of him in. As he throbbed against the insides of her mouth, Dawn tightened her kiss. Her nose nestled in his musky hair, but his scent stayed sweet, as she closed her eyes and savored his pulse. From the moment she saw him, telling George to watch his step as he cocked the trigger of his gun and declared that a lady was present, Dawn longed for some part of him, preferably the best part, deep inside her. Licking and sucking, as his fingers became lost in her messy hair, she had to admit that this was the last way she expected to know his lust. Yet, her throat still contracted around his cock, and she stroked his thighs, wanting and needing more.

 

“That’s good,” he groaned. “But I…”

 

His voice drifted past her ears when Cade pulled her up, her tongue watering with his taste, as he flung her to the bed and pushed her arms over her head.

 

“But I need to kiss you,” he said.

 

Her lips were still wet with him, as he crashed into her mouth, their tongues entwining, as he sucked the breath from her lungs. It felt like the best way to faint, and Dawn was on the verge of swooning when Cade abandoned her mouth and pushed his warm, wet cock between her legs.

 

“I’ll take the lead on this,” he said. “This is my turf.”

 

He kissed her quickly and started to slip inside her. Dawn’s heart seized, and she relaxed her muscles to take all of him in, as she lightly nodded her head and took hold of his face.

 

“So…so you’re the man in charge?” she breathlessly asked.

 

“Something like that,” he teased, as he rocked against her hips. As he started to fill her, Dawn’s world narrowed to the tight tip of his cock and she tried to remind herself that there was more to story. Cade Everett was only a face. A perfectly sculpted visage to be sure, but there was more to the Alphas than just this one man. There…there was…

 

“Right now, I’m in charge of you,” Cade said.

 

Dawn couldn’t object, and she didn’t want to as her head fell to the pillows and she arched her hips towards him. Cade’s fingers kept pressing into her wrists as he pushed deeper. Her pussy burned around him, under him, and Dawn strained towards his lips when he turned his head away from her kiss and nuzzled her neck.

 

“Tell me that you need this,” Cade ordered.

 

“I… I…”

 

As much as she longed to form the words, Dawn’s tongue tied between her teeth, and she shivered at the feel of his cock slipping from her cunt.

 

“You have to say the words,” he said. “Only way it’s gonna go down.”

 

She felt trapped in a prison lined with silk, his cock just grazing the edges of her cunt, as he pulled at her short hair and gave her no choice but to just answer.

 

“I…I need this,” she choked out. “I need you.” Cade kept lingering around her pussy, but he relinquished his hold on her wrists. Grateful for some relief, Dawn lightly touched his face, as she sighed into the air. “Don’t stop now,” she whined. “I…told you what you wanted to hear.”

 

“So you did,” he said in a husky voice. “Now tell me that I can trust you.”

 

Dawn quailed under her his eyes and prayed that her face was an unreadable mask. Could he trust her? When it came to her need for his body within her cunt, pressing ever closer to her soul, the answer was yes. However, there were other factors in play. Motives that made her dress the way she did in search of who he was and what made him and his friends tick. Letting that truth fall to the back of her mind, Dawn silently prayed that she had just the right words for his ears. It was the only way she was going to ever get everything that she needed.

 

And that moment, it only meant more of…all of him.

 

“Trust me, Cade,” she said. “Be with me.”

 

He pushed his fingers into her thighs, and Dawn leaned up to kiss him when he forced her back to the bed, sweetly shredding her soft flesh, as his cock consumed her cunt. Dawn cried out, and she gripped his shoulders, steadying her body against his as his throb intensified. His eyes narrowed to hers, and Dawn stayed in his stare, as he pushed deeper and winded his fingers behind her neck.

 

“I want you,” he said. “More than I’ve ever wanted anything or anyone else.”

 

Dawn’s mind filled with all ways in which that made him naïve, but she pushed them aside, as he released a hot stream. His lust coated her cunt, and she felt Cade entering her bloodstream, as she fell back to the bed. She sighed at the feel of his lips dotting her breasts, his teeth just touching her nipples, as he wrapped his arms around her back and lay at her side. Cade turned her body to his chest, his cock still throbbing, as he brushed a few strands of hair from her eyes and tenderly kissed her cheek.

 

“Dawn?”

 

She loved the sound of her name leaving his lips, and her eyes fluttered, as she nodded and rested her head on his shoulder.

 

“I’m glad you came by,” he said. “Girl like you is everything I need.”

 

Ready to rest against him and absorb nothing but the compliment, she recalled her true purpose when it came to his orbit. Unspeakable pleasure aside, Dawn still had a job to do, and she fondled his face as she rested her lips to his eyes.

 

“Why do you need a girl like me?” she asked, hiding the quiver in her tone as she stroked his face.

 

“You really don’t know where you are, do you?”

 

Dawn shook her head in a show of ignorance and watched him slip to the edge of the bed. Crawling towards him, she tried to smooth the tension from his back, as she sighed into his ear and held him as close as she dared.

 

“Enlighten me, Cade,” she said.

 

The Alpha reached around his chest and grabbed her hand. There was something far warmer and much tenderer than anything she would have ever expected in his touch, and Cade pressed her hand closer as he found her eyes.

 

“Not that it would mean anything to you,” he started. “But this used to be our turf and no one else’s. You should have seen us in those days. No one so much as blinked when we rode by.”

 

Dawn pictured Cade perched on his Harley, as he rode hard and fast down Main before turning the corner for the Starlight Diner. Did he ever make like her and stop for French toast with an extra helping of bacon? Or did he keep moving and because he had no other choice?

 

“But the word around town is you and your boys have been hiding yourselves,” Dawn said. “Where have you all been?”

 

She was ready for a lie, something that she’d have to absorb and store for future use when Cade smiled and lowered her back to the bed.

 

“Waiting for you to come around,” he said. “And Dawn?”

 

She hummed and nodded, as he gathered her close to her chest. Cade kissed her softly, as he smoothed the hair from her cheeks and sighed slowly.

 

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “You were well worth the wait.”

 

Wishing that she could lay in his arms for hours, days on end, Dawn glanced over his shoulder. Through the murky window, she started to see the sun sinking into the sky, and she pulled away from him with a mournful groan, as she plucked her fallen clothing from the floor.

 

“Dawn?”

 

His tone was strained, as he pulled her back to his side.

 

“Don’t tell me you’re leaving so soon?” he nervously asked.

 

“I…I have to…. I still have a job to—”

 

“And what’s that all about?” he asked.

 

Thinking fast, Dawn knew that she needed a lie if she was going to make a clean break and hope for a way back…

 

“Library,” she lied. “They…they get testy if I’m away from the front desk for too long.”

 

Cade leaned back and just touched the hem of her skirt.

 

“You don’t look like a girl who makes her living like that,” he said.

 

“I’m full of surprises.”

 

He seemed to ponder the possibility, and Dawn felt as if she would burst through her skin when he finally laughed.

 

“Something tells me that I’m going to be making a reading list in record time,” Cade said.

 

Dawn’s shoulders sagged in relief. He bought it. So she could still make a clean break and…

 

“But no!” she cried. “I…you can’t come around.”

 

“Why not?” he challenged. “Ashamed of me or something?”

 

“Cade…no way.”

 

Kissing him quickly, she knew that she had to keep him at bay. Kicking herself for the idiocy of her fast lie, Dawn pulled back and played with his hair.

 

“I want…I’m going to come back here,” she said. “And if anyone’s going to be ashamed…”

 

As she arched her eyebrows, Cade stroked her cheek.

 

“Gonna hold you to that promise,” he said. “Because if you don’t come back, I’ll hunt you down.”

 

Knowing that he meant it, and almost savoring the threat, Dawn nodded and felt his hand in hers.

 

“You won’t have to,” she said. “I can come back tomorrow night. Is it…is that soon enough?”

 

“No,” he said, as he stretched up her side and took her into his arms. “But…”

 

His voice trailed off, as he kissed her hard and lifted her off the ground. Dawn floated in his arms, and she held her breath until he brought her back to her feet and stroked her face.

 

“But you’ll keep,” Cade said. “Here. Let me walk you out.”

 

Hanging on his arm, Dawn watched the other Alphas eying her carefully. George still seethed in the wake of her attack, but the little guy who went by Lenny bowed his head and smiled, as Cade led Dawn back to her car. She fished her keys from her purse and settled behind the wheel with the window lowered, as she reached for his face one last time.

 

“I really do like you,” Dawn said. “And I will come back.”

 

He kissed her through the open widowed and caressed her hair before pulling back with a light grin.

 

“And I’ll be here,” he said. “Waiting for you.”

 

As soon as she hit the gas, Dawn twisted her head over her shoulder and saw him lingering in the wake of her fumes. Something told her that he was as good as his word, that he would wait.

 

However, there was another man, also waiting, and Dawn sighed heavily as she approached a gray building and pushed her car into park.